Pages

1/8/13

Obama's trillion dollar coin trick

Some Democrats want President Obama to exploit a legal loophole that allows him to direct the U.S. Mint to strike trillion-dollar platinum coins, give them to the Federal Reserve thus sidestepping Congress and enabling continued profligate government spending.
The platinum coin trick does not pass the laugh test; this does not mean, however, that the idea is going nowhere, writes Peter Roff of USNews. "Unless Congress acts to prohibit the coins from ever being struck it is always possible the president, any president, could keep one or two up his sleeve just in case. It's bad policy, bad politics, and bad economics. It should be rejected out of hand and the White House should make clear it has been." More detail here.